Setting up a website on a windows VPS

[EvilGrin]

Hi guys, need some help and advice if possible!

I've purchased a vps from poundhost and I need it to do a few things:

1. When someone visits www.mywebsite.com, I want our website which I've set up in IIS to display.

2. I want to be able to send/receive e-mail to all *@mywebsite.com - I've started to set up hMailServer. (Never used this program before, I'm more used to Exchange, but it seems simple enough!? And most of all, it's free!).

Currently my domain name is sitting with my ISP, I've asked poundhost if they can host the domain, and they can't, all they can do is provide an rDNS record.

So far pretty unimpressed with poundhost's support. I've asked them simple questions about what I need to do for DNS and they just keep replying that they can only help with rDNS and can't give any further advice as it's a self-managed server. I know it's self-managed, I know my way around windows server, but it's my first time setting up a website on a windows server and expected a higher level of support than "It's your problem". It seems like a case of they don't want to help, rather than can't. Anyway, rant over.

So, what do I need to do from here? Currently my website is working if I go to http://ip/mywebsite. I've installed DNS on the server, but not really sure what I need to do next, is it as simple as contacting my ISP and asking them to adjust their forward dns record to point to my server's IP, give me details for nameservers, set up mx records and set up an A record for mail.mywebsite.com to point to my server's IP too? Surely not, things are never that simple!

Thanks guys.

 

[Sp00n]

Unfortunately you get what you pay for, you didn't pay for support so they don't have to, that's the point with "self-managed" servers, support costs money.

Yes, point the A record of your domain to the new server and then change the MX record to point at your new email host as well, this should just be a case of changing the records rather than creating new ones as you should have one for www.domain.com and domain.com and also the mx record and mail.domain.com (eg).

You don't need to install DNS on the server, it's not going to do anything.

 

[EvilGrin]

Unfortunately you get what you pay for, you didn't pay for support so they don't have to, that's the point with "self-managed" servers, support costs money.

Yes, point the A record of your domain to the new server and then change the MX record to point at your new email host as well, this should just be a case of changing the records rather than creating new ones as you should have one for www.domain.com and domain.com and also the mx record and mail.domain.com (eg).

You don't need to install DNS on the server, it's not going to do anything.

Thanks, it looks like it should be a fairly simple call to my ISP then. I agree about the support and getting what you pay for, it's just a little annoying that I've seen better support for cheaper services (albeit lower spec at the same time of course). I'd have love to have gone with tsohost or vidahost or the likes of serverstream too and I know I would have had much better service, infact I argued the case until I was blue in the face, but at the end of the day my manager wanted to go with a "larger" company, so my hands were tied.

Ah well, hopefully in 6 months time I can say I told you so, and at least a simple DNS record change should mean I can move hosts without much if any downtime.